On today’s episode of NCECA 360 we have a special presentation of Clay Stories from our Two Thousand fifteen conference in Providence, RI. Curated by Steven Branfman and Owen Dearing, Clay Stories features ceramic artists telling true stories in front of a live audience at our yearly NCECA conference. If you are a fan of the story telling podcasts the Moth Radio Hour or Risk you are going to love this episode. Today you will hear Ron Roy, Debra Chronister, Robin Hopper and a handful of other storytellers talk about the moments that challenge and inspire their lives in clay.

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The NCECA 360 podcast is the official podcast for the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. The biweekly podcast features ceramic news, information, interviews with artists, and exclusive NCECA Conference coverage.

If you would like to participate in a Clay Stories event at the 2016 Kansas City conference, pitch your five-minute story at

“Moderator Adam Field talks with the 2015 Emerging Artists about their professional development and the difficulty of maintaining an authentic voice in a vast ocean of social media. The discussion includes Rachel Garceau, Andrew Casto, Kelly O’Briant, Roberto Lugo and Joanna Powell. The discussion was recorded at the 2015 NCECA conference in Providence, RI.

The NCECA 360 podcast is the official podcast for the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. The biweekly podcast features ceramic news, information, interviews with artists, and exclusive NCECA Conference coverage.

As Paul Sacaridiz so deftly explained in his introduction, this conversation, Pass the Peas, Food Objects and the Making of Community, stemmed out of a project NCECA began in 2014 in Milwaukee, the idea of developing a curated roundtable discussion. The impetus for this came from thinking about the way in which NCECA brings in a keynote, who sets the tone for the conference, sets out a series of ideas that we believe underscore the work and thinking that’s happening at that conference, and perhaps even looking ahead to the following year. But then often we applaud, ask questions and then send them back into the world. So our hope with this roundtable is to keep them for a night and to engage them in conversation the next morning by thinking about some of the core of what we believe is being presented in that keynote and the work that that person is doing and to invite an extraordinary diverse group of makers and thinkers to join us in that conversation.
For our 2015 roundtable, we were honored to have Vipoo Srilivasa, Aruna D’Souza, Julia Galloway, and of course, our Keynote Speaker, Dr. Frederick Douglas Opie. Namita Gupta Wiggers moderated this panel, which also served as a brilliant jumping off point for our NCECA 50th anniversary community engagement project, Across the Table, Across the Land. Stay tuned to the blog to read more about how artists across the nation are engaging with this project and celebrating the connection between clay and community through food! In the meantime, enjoy the complete video of this exceptional presentation!

NCECA is very excited to share a session from the extremely popular Process Room. For those of you who don’t already know, “Lively Experiments” marked the 3rd year of this popular aspect of NCECA Conference. Each year, this “attraction” has grown, and we realize that many sessions were not just “standing room only”, but at several sessions, the fire marshall was actually barring people from entering the room. NCECA is thrilled with the popularity of the process room, and we continue to learn and grow from the experiences (and experiments) of each conference.

For next year, we are already looking into larger spaces for the process room, and are considering a variety of other options as well. In the mean time, We hope you enjoy the opportunity to relive (or experience for the first time) Jennifer Allen’s session:

Now online: One of the most popular topics from the 2015 conference! Few things are as important to a potter as their hands. Check out Branfman’s article on pages 101-103 of the 2015 Journal, and view his session below. NCECA would like to thank Allison Zimmer Guiliotis for her video editing work on this session!

As you manipulate mud on the wheel your hands sense and send signals to your brain. moisture, texture, temperature, and thickness. The hands’ unique abilities are carefully orchestrated by a precise amalgam of arteries, nerves, tendons, ligaments, bones, and muscles encased within a specialized envelope of skin and fascia. The hand comprises only 1% of the body’s surface area, yet of the human skelton’s 206 bones, over 25% of them are contained within the hand and wrist.

As the 2014 NCECA conference started in Milwaukee, the news of Don Reitz’s passing on March 19 at his home in Clarkdale, Arizona, sent rippling shock waves throughout the audience and beyond. He was 84 and throughout his six-decade career, he continued to push his artistic vision, inspiring generations of ceramic practitioners. Don was a modern day folk legend and larger-than-life. As a master ceramist, Don Reitz produced new and exciting work with his innovative and adaptable practice.

-Peter Held, from the 2015 NCECA Journal, page 12.

At the 2015 conference, Don was honored as one of our “Past Masters” Peter Held spoke beautifully about Don’s life, art, & philosophy. Below, you can view a video of the presentation.